Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Happy Birthday SBS!!!

June is almost here, for some of us it is already June! How's it looking so far?

Well in here it's going to be party party all month long! WHOOP!!!

In just a few hours it will be June, that means I have been in business for 6 years now!

There is maybe one thing I would change...my lack of confidence. Many of you may know, but then a few newbies may not know...when I first started this venture I had to hire artists. I lacked the confidence to put my own art work out there. I felt I needed so much improvement, and rather than put up my art and watch it improve and grow as I have been doing the past year now, I was chicken and just wanted to have my own little company.

I started this adventure because I was forced to shut down my scrapbook store. While re-opening my store in a larger occasion and 8 months pregnant with Jude, I was conducting a class, when goodness me, I started cramping. NO I am not cramping, I told myself....I am just tired, my baby bump hurts more like a soreness from not sitting...SURE BETTY SURE. I started my class, speed forward the "soreness" came every five minutes now, then BOOM OMG I THINK THAT WAS A CONTRACTION!! Yep full blown labor at 8 months. Being on the mountain, and the mountain not doing baby deliveries, guess who got her first ever helicopter ride? YEP I sure did. Jude was born 26 hours later as they could no longer stop the labor. A premie at 7 lbs. 2.5 oz. NO WAY that is a premie!! But he was...he was big because of my diabetes, usually diabetic moms grow big babies. SO he stayed in the hospital from birth, Nov. 30th 2008 till December 23rd. Just two days till Christmas. He was our family Christmas gift that year. He had actually come home about two weeks before that, cause I insisted and insisted and he was doing so well, but tragedy NEARLY fell upon us...on the second night home, I was so tired form not having rested a day since he was born to see him, bathe him, feed him, and be with him in the NICU I was breastfeeding him, I fell asleep and my baby was choking! He turned blue on me and I screamed as loud as I could for my husband. He is an EMT, as many of you may know. He laid my baby's blue limp bode on the coffee table I am working off of now and performed CPR for 2 minutes till he came to and screamed!! SO, the day after that as we took him down for a check up the doctors suggested I allow them to take him again until he is a little bit older, as old as he would have had to be at full term, or at least 40 weeks...he was born at 36 weeks. So, this and the slowly decline of the market, when scrapbooking become more and more a luxury than usual I decided to shut down my doors.

I started blogging, got into digis, my first Digi was one of Maurie Manning's of Mo's Digital Pencil. I then got my first real shot at showing my stuff by becoming a DT member for the Pink Elephant ran by Lori Boyd. From there I got this CRAZY idea to just open my own digital company. You see, I did the whole 8-5 thing when Rio and my oldest were babies, until I moved to Big Bear when Rio was 5 and Christian 9. I worked and worked, and never found happiness. I even became a certified U.S. Customs Broker, my boss pushed me as she felt I was smart enough and could really be big for her company. So I studied and took the test and VIOLA, I was brokering (yes Betty word) for five years before I moved to Big Bear, opened my store and then got into the digis.

It's been a long but wonderful 6 years. I would as mentioned changed nothing as I have come to be who I am now in this business by stumbling and falling, by learning and by trying. Nothing is perfected until you hit a few bumps.

I've made AMAZING friends, true friends for life. Friends I can openly tell them my darkest of secrets and I know they won't judge or spread rumors around. Friends...amazing concept, become reality through my art. That in itself is a wonderful reward for me.

Here's my hope now for the following years to come.

I hope, that when you see my art it makes you smile.

I hope that when I tell you my stories, you laugh till your sides hurt. Cause I swear I could have written 3's Company all on my own!

I hope that when you choose a digi to color, you smile and think of me and my nuttiness so that you can smile and know that I am in the room with you in some form, sharing in your love for crafting/coloring/card making or whatever you use that digi for.

I hope that our little circle of friends continues to grow!

I hope you have all enjoyed yourselves thus far and hope to be celebrating 20 years in 14 more!!

Please join me this month in celebrating the decision I made 6 years ago to dive in head first!

Happy Birthday to my beloved SBS!!!

Do I have a birthday wish...yes I do!!! I wish to sell 200 digs in 24 hours...LOL hey it's a wish, they're meant to be outrageous!